After the commotion was over, it didn't take long for Lukas and others to realize that the intruders were after Liam Hoffman. The young apprentice boy was in the kitchen when the attack occurred. After serious questioning the one captured assassin, they came to know where the assassin's compatriots had taken the boy.

Lukas decides to rescue his apprentice while assigning Elena Hoffman to stay at the mansion to keep an eye on the prisoners and wait for the guild's reply. Along with the captured assassin, Ray was also put into prison. This made Ray angry, he starts to argue fiercely.

"Why are you putting back the cuffs on me?"

"Interrogating the assassin should have made it clear that I don't work for the attacker."

"Even the nun can vouch for me if only you ask her."

Lukas does not listen to any argument ray makes and leaves the only to come back after the door gets shut.

"what?"

"changing thoughts."

"Finally.."

Lukas lets Ray out with the condition that he will keep his cuffs on at all times and come with him instead of staying at the mansion. The reason for Lukas's change in thought was because he was still wary of Ray. In the giant crater where Lukas found ray barely clinging to life, the sudden attack, nothing was making sense. Being curious about Lukas's decision, Ray decides to ask him a series of questions.

"Why did you ask the nun to stay?"

"I mean, the people who attacked the mansion were eighteen in total, including the guy you killed and the one I and the nun captured alive."

"wouldn't strength in numbers make more sense in this case."

Lukas tells Ray with a grin on face,

"you talk too much."

As the conversation ends, both of them reached the stable, which is situated due east of the mansion. The elevation made it so that a person could only see the tall roof of the stable from the mansion windows. Ray, when he saw the creatures inside the stable, was left speechless.

"Wow!"

"never seen one of these?"

"Well, even if I did, I wouldn't remember."

Ray said so because he had to keep up with his amnesia act, but this creature was the first-ever he had seen. The animals had the body of a horse but the head of a bull. Seeing Ray's astonished face, Lukas replies.

"'Taur-Hippos' is what they are called."

"in these parts, they are quite common."

"The Run like a horse but hit like a savage bull."

"Their savage nature keeps beasts and monsters stay away from them."

"Locals around the valley territory often use them for farming and other laborious tasks."

Hearing those words, Ray replies with an exclaimed face,

"makes sense!"

"Are we going to ride these Taur-.. whatever?"

"Because they don't look safe."

Lukas laughs and tells Ray,

"around these areas, you will find no horses to speak of, and these guys travel faster than any horse out there."

"So let's get, going shall we."

Both Lukas and Ray embarked onto their destination, which was a hideout of the intruders located in the mountains bordering the dragon valley territory. The Taur-Hippos, which ran like a Racecar. The feeling that ray had while riding the Taur-Hippos was clearly expressed in the words he spoke to himself in his inner thoughts while he was traveling on the Jagged-country-road.

"Woo..!!"

"Never thought riding a living race car would feel like this!"

"yeah!"

The experience was so great that for a moment, Ray

forgot the fact that he was going to rescue Liam Hoffman.

An hour later, the duo reaches the mountain entrance. To avoid any unnecessary attention, Lukas and Ray decide to enter the forest on foot and sends the Taur-Hippos back to the mansion. Ray, as per the condition set by Lukas, was still cuffed when they both reached the mountain entrance located at the border of the dragon valley territory. Lukas asks Ray to wait at the forest entrance while he went inside to look for the hideout. Who knew that things would only get even more interesting as time would progress further.